Karan Johar ventures in animation

After a probing treatise on marriage, director Karan Johar is all set to go into an unexplored territory - to make an animation film.

Says the director who is on lecture tours: "It's my production house's first animation film, and I'm naturally very excited about going into a new territory. It's going to be based on a novel concept, a complete feature film like any Dharma Production with songs, emotions... you name it.

"Suresh Nair is writing the script for me. I hope to get the right technical team in place early next year. I believe my animation film will get the formula right for our audience. What I'll be doing is to combine an alien concept (animation films are largely seen as Hollywood territory) with a concept that's familiar to our audience."

Karan will also direct his fourth feature film.

"I want to start the project by the end of next year. It's an idea that grabbed me one morning as I read the newspaper, and it stayed with me. I've the story, and I'll be working on it. I'm going to start writing my screenplay as soon as I return to Mumbai."

In addition, Karan is going to be producing his long-standing assistant Tarun Mansukhani's film, which rolls in June.

"It's a romantic comedy with the fun element being predominant. Tarun has been with me for the last decade. And yes, it will have lots of stars. Isn't that a prerequisite for all Dharma productions?"

And what about Karan's assistant Soham Shah who was working on a project for Karan's production house and decided to leave overnight?

Karan responds with tight-lipped candour.

"Soham is a master craftsman, a master story-teller and a great human being. No matter who the producer, I hope his film will meet with great success."